A question about continuing a story

[Wolfblackthorne]

I have a story that I started a while back that I want to continue. I was wondering what an acceptable length for a chapter would be. I have two thousand words so far. Is there such a thing as too short or too long?

I was also curious about the H on some of my stories. What does it mean? How do I get those? Sorry if this is a terrible question.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

2,000 words is quite a bit less than a full page on Literotica. Typical chapters can be from there to 10,000 words, by my personal rough estimate. There is huge variation, from 750 words (the minimum story chapter length) to full-length novels in the hundreds of thousands.

--Annie

 

[StillStunned]

I was also curious about the H on some of my stories. What does it mean? How do I get those? Sorry if this is a terrible question.

I had a professor at uni who said, "The only stupid question is the one you don't ask." If you don't know, never be afraid to ask: it's the easiest way to find out.

Anyway, a red H signifies an average score of at least 4.5 from 10 or more votes. It doesn't indicate quality as such, but popularity, at least among the people who cared to vote. Or else it means that the author has ten alts.

 

[YmaOHyd]

I have a story that I started a while back that I want to continue. I was wondering what an acceptable length for a chapter would be. I have two thousand words so far. Is there such a thing as too short or too long?

I was also curious about the H on some of my stories. What does it mean? How do I get those? Sorry if this is a terrible question.

The H stands for Hot; it just means you have 10 ratings averaging 4.50 or better.

750 words is the absolute minimum submission length. Anything less than that gets rejected. The longest single-chapter story I'm aware of here is just shy of 150,000 words submitted as a single part, but there are at least a few that are in excess of a million words spread across more than a hundred chapters.

As for, subjectively, what's too short or too long? There are people who will dip out of anything longer than 5000 words because it's too long, and there are people who won't bother with anything less than a few pages. For me personally the sweet spot is around 12,000 words, which is roughly four full Lit pages.

Edit: Also subjectively -- this is just me personally -- if I look at a series and see that it's got 20 chapters and each one is 1500 words long, I'm not gonna read it. That feels like padding the story count to me.

 

[Wolfblackthorne]

So is it bad if a story does not get the H designation? I'm thinking it means it wasn't popular?

I'm wondering is it something to go for?

 

[Britva415]

is it something to go for?

How would you do that?

What would you differently from if you were just going to go ahead and write what you wanted to write to the best of your ability and level of fucks-given already?

 

[YmaOHyd]

So is it bad if a story does not get the H designation? I'm thinking it means it wasn't popular?

I'm wondering is it something to go for?

I mean, yes? In that generally if people like your work, you'll get the H and it's good to write things that people like. But there's not much you can do to get them, beyond producing the best things you can, making sure they're properly edited and formatted, and submitting to the correct category.

Is it bad if a story doesn't get it? No, not really. Fewer people will read it, probably. But it's not like they're gonna take your writing privileges away.

 

[ElectricBlue]

So is it bad if a story does not get the H designation? I'm thinking it means it wasn't popular?

I'm wondering is it something to go for?

A Red H brings more readers to the story, there's no doubt about that. It's not necessarily an indicator of quality or popularity, but can be a combination of both. You'll need to stick around Lit for a while, and make your own mind up about that.

One thing you shouldn't do is assume all categories are equal. They're not. Each category has its own dynamic, that over time makes sense within that category, but not in comparison to any other category. Many (most?) categories are quite tribal, with the denizens often having quite rigorous "rules". You can kowtow to those "rules" if you want to - and your stories might end up getting an easy run, but might end predictable, formulaic. Or you can say, "Fuck that," and write what you want to write.

Good stories, well written, nearly always end up with generous scores.

 

[Writer61]

Personally, I like stories that are 3-4 pages, which is approximately 10-12k words. Because of this preference, my current WIP is what was planned to be two stories (episodes would be a better description) with a similar theme, combined into one.

Umm, I have heard that size doesn't matter; it's what you do with it that counts.

Don't pad. Tell the story well and get out ASAP. Quality over quantity.

 

[nice90sguy]

So is it bad if a story does not get the H designation? I'm thinking it means it wasn't popular?

I'm wondering is it something to go for?

Well, you've been around sinced 2012 according to your profile -- if you havent paid much attention to the H up till now as a reader, that probably answers your question better than anyone here could

 

[ronde]

I have a story that I started a while back that I want to continue. I was wondering what an acceptable length for a chapter would be. I have two thousand words so far. Is there such a thing as too short or too long?

I was also curious about the H on some of my stories. What does it mean? How do I get those? Sorry if this is a terrible question.

Don't worry about how many words you write in a chapter. Instead, concentrate on making sure that each chapter has a beginning and an end. By Beginning, I mean a paragraph or two to remind the reader of what happened in the chapter before. That's important because readers may not "find" you until your third or fourth chapter. If you don't take a paragraph to explain where this chapter is going and why, they won't have a clue. Some readers will look for your previous chapters. Some will just back-click and to on to something else.

The "end" is also important. With the exception of the last chapter, each chapter needs a "teaser" to tell the reader there is another chapter coming. It can be very simple wording, like, "John walked away thinking about what she'd said. He'd have to find a way to change her mind." That tells the reader that there's more coming.

 

[alohadave]

I was wondering what an acceptable length for a chapter would be. I have two thousand words so far. Is there such a thing as too short or too long?

Whatever works for you and your story. I've seen stories with chapters of 800 words. Some have chapters of 30k words.

There is no right or wrong.

 

[Britva415]

It's not necessarily an indicator of […] popularity

It would seem to me that it is, among people who gave scores. “How popular was it among people who voted?” Answer: That 🅷 or that number.

But maybe this is right, because we can’t assume those voters are the same ones who are also scoring anything we might compare this one story to. So there’s no way to get a “popular with whom and compared to whatm” figure.

 

[taytay4eva]

So is it bad if a story does not get the H designation? I'm thinking it means it wasn't popular?

I'm wondering is it something to go for?

It's not bad if it doesn't get it, but there's a nice feeling when you do. To me, a score of 4.5 / 5 or higher means that I wrote an A-grade story (since 4.5 / 5 is 90%, or an A-grade).

I'd like to be a traditionally published author one day as well, so a lot of "Hot" stories would mean that a lot of people think my stories are well written, which is a confidence booster.

 

[ronde]

So is it bad if a story does not get the H designation? I'm thinking it means it wasn't popular?

I'm wondering is it something to go for?

The "H" only means that the readers who voted thought your story was pretty good. There are a couple things you need to realize about the ratings though.

1. If you stick around long enough to pick up some followers, they'll often vote and usually that vote will be a "4" or a "5".
2. There will always be readers who don't really read the story. They read it with the hopes the story will be what they think the story should be. Either that, or they'll read something into your story that isn't there. You'll get some "3" votes from them if they bother to vote.
3. There are a few voters who vote either a "5" or a "1", "5" if they liked it and it measured up to their expectations, "1" if it was anything else.
4. The rating will change over time as more readers find your work. The rating may go up or down.
5. The ratio of votes to reads is low on this site just as it is on any erotica site I've written for. My average is 1 vote for about 19 reads, but some of my stories are just about 1 vote for 600 reads.

The best way to think about the ratings is anything over "4" means you did a pretty good job. You satisfied 80% of the people who voted. The red "H" means you got mostly "4" and "5" votes. Your goal should be to write stories you like, the way you want to write them, and let the chips fall where they may.

 

[ElectricBlue]

It would seem to me that it is, among people who gave scores. “How popular was it among people who voted?” Answer: That 🅷 or that number.

But maybe this is right, because we can’t assume those voters are the same ones who are also scoring anything we might compare this one story to. So there’s no way to get a “popular with whom and compared to whatm” figure.

The spread of scores my stories get suggests my readers are handing out 4s and more 5s, with some 3s, which suggests more an opinion on the story itself, than on me as a popular author, because I'm not. I'm not a single category author for starters, and I don't have anywhere near the follower counts that some folk here have got. So for me, it's more a score on the story than it is a popularity rating.

 

[TheLobster]

5. The ratio of votes to reads is low on this site just as it is on any erotica site I've written for. My average is 1 vote for about 19 reads, but some of my stories are just about 1 vote for 600 reads.

Caveat to this is that reads aren't views, and we only know the count of the latter. A view is merely an impression of the first page; it says whether or not the reader has so much as scrolled down to skim through that first page. There's plenty of prospective readers who bounce from a story immediately, either because they saw something objectionable in the tags (which are shown practically nowhere else in the UI) or because the beginning didn't appeal to them.

 

[NikkijMaadison]

I read somewhere that 3500 is approximately one lit page. Of course, dialogue and font size can make a difference.

 

[iwatchus]

I read somewhere that 3500 is approximately one lit page. Of course, dialogue and font size can make a difference.

Yes, but I don't think it's adjusted for font size. I think the pages just change apparent size.

 

[YmaOHyd]

What's Left of Me Ch 1 is less dialogue-heavy than the rest of my work. 3670 words on the first lit-page, 7 pages in Word. What's Left of Me Ch 3 is very dialogue-heavy. 3653 words on the first Lit-page, nine pages in Word. @onehitwanda's Wanderlust has 3605 words on the first Lit-page and is almost entirely dialogue; it's 11 pages in Word. Bumpy Road Ahead by Polypaul is 3971 words on the first Lit-page and seven pages in Word; it does not have a lot of single-line dialogue, as far as I can see.

So I'd guess that a single Lit-page is something like 3500-4000 words.

 

[NuclearFairy]

What's Left of Me Ch 1 is less dialogue-heavy than the rest of my work. 3670 words on the first lit-page, 7 pages in Word. What's Left of Me Ch 3 is very dialogue-heavy. 3653 words on the first Lit-page, nine pages in Word. @onehitwanda's Wanderlust has 3605 words on the first Lit-page and is almost entirely dialogue; it's 11 pages in Word. Bumpy Road Ahead by Polypaul is 3971 words on the first Lit-page and seven pages in Word; it does not have a lot of single-line dialogue, as far as I can see.

So I'd guess that a single Lit-page is something like 3500-4000 words.

I have long suspected that it's more of a character count, with the hidden characters also being counted, because of how very much it can vary.

But then, you also have to take into account that a lit page won't cut a paragraph and I don't know whether a paragraph that goes over the number would be shunted to the next page or kept on the previous.

 

[YmaOHyd]

I have long suspected that it's more of a character count, with the hidden characters also being counted, because of how very much it can vary.

But then, you also have to take into account that a lit page won't cut a paragraph and I don't know whether a paragraph that goes over the number would be shunted to the next page or kept on the previous.

April's Fool, 9 pages in Word, 3511 words, 19077 characters.
Plugged In, 8 pages in Word, 3558 words, 19396 characters.
What's Left 1, 7 pages in Word, 3670 words, 19606 characters.
What's Left 2, 7 pages in Word, 3638 words, 20012 characters.
What's Left 3, 9 pages in Word, 3653 words, 19728 characters.
What's Left 4, 9 pages in Word, 3536 words, 18787 characters.
What's Left 5, 9 pages in Word, 3569 words, 19020 characters.

I have no idea if or how HTML or emojis or whatever would affect that, and the numbers above do include spaces. So ultimately: I have no idea!

 

[iwatchus]

I think it's some combination of word count and text box size, at the default font size. I have seen it vary pretty significantly (up to almost 4K words, down to less than 3500).

So lots of dialogue or short paragraphs gives smaller word count pages. Big blocks of text give large ones. My guess is that they won't start a new paragraph after a given cutoff. Not sure what they would do if that paragraph was really long. Of if you had a single paragraph over 4K words. (Don't try this at home in your own stories, kids!)

 

[alohadave]

I read somewhere that 3500 is approximately one lit page. Of course, dialogue and font size can make a difference.

About 3750. Which when printed on 8.5x11 paper is 15 pages of double spaced text, with 250 words per page.